Cadillac Freshmen Wing, Westinghouse Become Wingmen for Each Other
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2024
Lawson Westinghouse has a wingman.
He really has several, but arguably no one closer than Dominic Wing, the 6-foot-5 freshman starting quarterback at Cadillac High School.
Westinghouse is also a freshman at Cadillac. A couple of other freshman, lineman Tanner Johnson and wide receiver/linebacker Will Howell, also are standing ready and willing to support.
Westinghouse, an avid long distance runner, likely will never play a down on the football field for the Vikings. But he’s usually helping the quarterbacks with drills at practice and looks like a member of the coaching staff on the sidelines during games.
He’s taken all road trips with the Vikings, sitting right next to Wing on the bus. Unfortunately, the road trip string is likely to end tonight when the Vikings head to Marquette for a matchup with league and playoff implications. Cadillac goes into the game 4-3 overall with a 3-2 Big North Conference record. Marquette is 5-2, 4-1.
Westinghouse can’t make the trip because he’s battling sickness complications from chemotherapy. He was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer called Ewing Sarcoma a few years back.
He got good news earlier this season indicating he was cancer free, but had to return to chemo this week.
Wing, Johnson and Howell spend time daily with Westinghouse reading. Westinghouse had goals of reading the book “The Twin Thieves” by the end of the school year and trying to stay in school every day.
The boys try to get Westinghouse through a few pages every day. Wing is his primary reading partner, having developed a close bond with Westinghouse since transferring to Cadillac from Morley Stanwood this fall.
They first met at a basketball game last winter at Cadillac. They reconnected on the first day of school this fall and sat side by side during road trips to Midland, Gaylord, Sault Ste. Marie and Greenville as Cadillac recovered from an 0-2 start winning four of its last five games heading into tonight’s contest.
“I had a bunch of friends (at Cadillac), so I came up for a game,” Wing recollected. “(Lawson) saw me there, and he came up and introduced himself.
The friendship started to really take off with the first day of school, the two freshmen said. “(Lawson) wanted to be on the field, and we started reading in the mornings, which was really nice,” Wing recalled.
The special bond has led to a looser game warm-up and become a key to Wing’s mental preparations. It may be even more critical than Wing’s off-field opportunities to consult with a former NFL quarterback, John Wolford.
“We both talk the whole time on the bus rides,” Westinghouse said.
Wing treasures the conversation.
“We connect on the bus,” Wing said. “Once we get off the bus, he’ll get my warm-up ball and he’ll come over and watch me warm up, and I think it is pretty cool.”
Second-year coach Nick Winkler, who also serves as a special education teacher for Cadillac, loves how the new quarterback has connected with Westinghouse, who may rank as the most popular kid in school.
“Dom does a really good job of looking out for opportunities to take some time with Lawson during games and practice,” said Winkler. “Playing quarterback is hard enough as it is, so to intentionally do that speaks a lot to Lawson and a lot of people in the program.”
Westinghouse said he loves football and running. He recently asked his parents to buy him a football, and he’s been secretly practicing away from the football field. He also has run the Mackinac Bridge Labor Day event both ways every year.
One of the most memorable moments for Winkler, Wing, Howell, Tanner and Westinghouse is far from the best one though. Lawson found himself sick on the way back from the Sault victory, and the boys had an opportunity to comfort him and practice a little caregiving.
“It was a late-night bus trip back, and Lawson gets sick,” Winkler said. “Those guys really helped him out — I think that speaks to their character.”
Another freshman, Ty Pettit, cannot play football due to a health condition, but also has been welcomed to the team. He participates in quarterback drills and serves as an equipment manger. He also serves as the resident prankster on the team, according to Winkler.
“I mostly hang out with the team and encourage them to do their best,” Pettit said of his role.
Without Westinghouse tonight, Wing will rely more on his consultation with Wolford, who first connected with Winkler in Green Bay. Wing is coming off completing 14 of 18 attempts for 200 yards in last week’s win. He has one touchdown pass and no interceptions.
Wolford played for the Los Angeles Rams from 2019-2022 and then during then during the 2023 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His first NFL start was in place of injured Jared Goff in the 2020 regular-season finale, and he led the Rams back into the playoffs with a 10-6 victory. He became the first quarterback to pass for more than 200 yards and rush for more than 50 in his NFL debut. He also backed up Matthew Stafford as the Rams won the 2021 Super Bowl.
‘‘Dominic’s grooming as a quarterback has not been normal,” said Winkler. “He has the opportunity to talk with an NFL quarterback every week if he wants to, and I would say that relationship would come second to what he and Lawson have developed.”
Wing will miss Westinghouse every time the offense comes off the field tonight.
‘I usually like to look for him and we give each other a little fist bump when I come off,” Wing said.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) From left, Ty Pettit, quarterbacks KaLenn Harsh and Dominic Wing, Lawson Westinghouse and Cadillac football coach Nick Winkler take a moment for a photograph during a recent practice. (Middle) Tanner Johnson, Will Howell and Westinghouse read “The Twin Thieves” together. (Below) Westinghouse keeps an eye on the action. (Practice photos by Tom Spencer; reading photo courtesy of the Cadillac athletic department.)
'Next Person Up' Mentality, Super Subs' Success Has Almont Returning to Ford Field
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 24, 2023
Gavin Szymansksi was nervous for about two plays.
The junior was making his first start for the Almont football team in Week 3 against Imlay City, replacing injured Cole Willard at left tackle.
Willard had been hurt in the first half of the Raiders’ Week 2 game against Algonac, and while Szymanski had filled in then, there was less pressure, as his team already had a hefty cushion.
But this was different. A first varsity start, on the opposite side of the line from his more familiar right tackle position.
“It wasn’t too scary in that moment (against Algonac), plus I thought he was going to be back,” Szymanski said. “(Week 3) was kind of scary. But the team was pretty supportive, and they didn’t have any doubt I’d be able to fill in. Then we had a TD on like the first or second play in the Imlay game, and I was fine.”
Szymanski filled in seamlessly for the Raiders, which became a theme throughout the season. As players went down with injuries, both short and longterm, their backups filled in without a hitch.
While every team is banged up throughout a season, for a Division 6 school with just more than 30 players on the varsity roster, it’s a remarkable feat to remain competitive, let alone go 8-1 during the regular season, win the Blue Water Area Conference title, and, for the second time in school history, advance to the MHSAA Finals at Ford Field.
“Our motto is ‘next person up,’” Almont coach James Leusby said. “They literally live by that. You never know when your number is going to get called, but they seem to always be ready.”
Szymanski – who is back in the starting lineup for the Raiders, now as a right tackle filling in for the injured Yousif Abu-Joudeh – and his Almont teammates will play Kingsley at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the Division 6 Final, looking for the program’s first Finals title.
While the Raiders certainly have star power – junior back Chase Battani had rushed for 1,169 yards and 18 touchdowns – it’s been the efforts of a team that has stretched well beyond it’s starting 22 that put them in this position.
The list of injuries, big and small, is extensive.
It started with Willard and ended with Abu-Joudeh, who was injured in Week 9. Fullback Jacob Stewart, who was averaging 15 yards per carry, was injured in Week 6 and missed a stretch. Matthew Bacholzky stepped up in his place, along with Ayden Ferqueron.
Outside linebacker Eric Haddon suffered a high ankle sprain, and was replaced by Jacob Fuller, who had spent most of the season on the offensive side of the ball. Defensive end and tight end Brent Corneau missed a stretch as well, and Nolan Maxlow, who was a split end and defensive back, had to step up in his place.
And that’s just what Leusby could remember off the top of his head late Tuesday night.
“In Division 6, you don’t have much depth, so the backups have to know multiple positions,” Leusby said. “I think it talks highly of our program and our system and the coaches we have in it. In the playoffs, we’ve started two JV kids at defensive tackle. Our motto is, when we bring our sophomores up, the best kids are going to play.”
Because of that program-wide preparation, players are not only ready, but have confidence in one another when it’s someone else’s time to step up.
“I felt confident in him,” Willard said of Szymanski. “A lot of kids get a lot of reps at practice. And we’ve run the same plays for like five years, so everyone knows them.”
Leusby, who took over at Almont in 2015, credited not just his high school staff, but a youth program that’s bursting at the seams with participants.
Almont is a football community, and while there are no Finals titles listed on the city limits sign, it has a very proud history of success, especially lately.
The Raiders have made the postseason each of the past 14 seasons, and 17 of the past 18. The lone miss was 2009, when they were 5-4. Only the pandemic-shortened 2020 season resulted in a record that wasn’t over .500, and even that one ended at 3-3 with a playoff win.
“I think, all in all, the community, they invest a lot of time into the program, and they expect results,” Leusby said. “You ask anybody, Almont is a football town.”
Leusby and his players are expecting that support to result in a lot of orange and black in the lower bowl of Ford Field on Saturday.
“Everybody has our back and wants us to win,” Willard said. “The whole town is travelling down there.”
They did the same in 2019 when the Raiders made their previous run to Ford Field. That ended with a 31-17 loss to Grand Rapids Catholic Central in the Division 5 Final.
“Honestly, when I was there in 2019, I was just thrilled to get to Ford Field,” Leusby said. “Yeah, it was a game and we wanted to win, but it was just cool to get to the Finals. After it was over, I thought, maybe I had sent the wrong messages. This year, we’ve reiterated that we’re going there to come home with the big daddy. Not second place – we want the big trophy.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Senior Isaiah Bankston (59) leads Almont onto the field before last Saturday’s Semifinal win over Ovid-Elsie. (Middle) Chase Battani (32) followers his Raiders blockers during the Regional Final win over Detroit Edison. (Photos by Maureen Flannery Walton.)